Senate passes child online safety bills that could hurt LGBTQ+ kids & allies

The Senate has passed the Kid’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) in a 91-3 vote. While the bipartisan bills seek to reduce the harmful impact of social media on young people, advocates worry that KOSA in particular will enable Republicans to block queer youth from seeing age-appropriate LGBTQ+ content online.

Only three senators voted against the bills: Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY) — all three made statements explaining why. The bill will soon head to the House for a vote. Some advocates hope the House will amend or block the bill to reduce the likelihood of Republicans abusing it.

Related:

Senate may soon pass 2 child online safety bills, despite worries from LGBTQ+ advocates

Activists fear Republicans will use the laws to block queer youth from seeing age-appropriate LGBTQ+ content online.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), authored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), mandates that social media companies take measures to prevent recommending any content that promotes mental health disorders (like eating disorders, drug use, self-harm, sexual abuse, and bullying) unless minors specifically search for such content. KOSA also requires platforms to limit features that result in compulsive usage — like autoplay and infinite scroll — or features that allow adults to contact young users or track their location. The bill says platforms must notify parents if their kids are exposed to potentially hazardous materials or interactions.

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COPPA 2.0, crafted by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), aims to establish robust online privacy protections for minors under 17. Among its provisions, the legislation would prohibit targeted advertising directed at children and teenagers and introduce an “eraser button,” enabling parents and kids to delete personal information from company databases.

KOSA is supported by groups like Common Sense Media, Fairplay, Design It For Us, Accountable Tech, Eating Disorders Coalition, American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Many other groups oppose the bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the LGBT Technology Partnership, Fight for the Future, as well as LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations in six states.

Because KOSA makes social media platforms legally liable for suggesting content that may harm kids’ mental health, the aforementioned opposition groups worry that Republican attorneys general who see LGBTQ+ identities as harmful forms of mental illness will use KOSA to censor queer web content and prosecute platforms that provide access to it. To avoid lawsuits, social media platforms may just censor such content altogether.

Furthermore, opposition groups say the law violates the First Amendment because it dictates what speech private companies can and cannot promote.

Supporters of KOSA point out that the legislation explicitly states that social media companies must only suppress content that encourages suicidal behaviors, eating disorders, substance use, sexual exploitation, and ads for tobacco and alcohol. The legislation allows social users of all ages to access any material that they deliberately search for, and the legislation excludes many organizational websites from possible lawsuits, including government platforms, libraries, and non-profits.

Wyden specifically said he voted against the bills because he worried a future administration could use the legislation to “pressure companies to censor gay, trans, and reproductive health information,” The Hill reported.

Lee said, “This legislation empowers the [Federal Trade Commission (FTC)] to censor any content it deems to cause ‘harm,’ ‘anxiety,’ or ‘depression,’ in a way that could (and most likely would) be used to censor the expression of political, religious, and other viewpoints disfavored by the FTC.”

Paul wrote in a recent Louisville Courier Journal opinion article, “KOSA would impose an unprecedented duty of care on internet platforms to design their sites to mitigate and prevent harms…. This requirement will not only stifle free speech, but it will deprive Americans of the benefits of our technological advancements.”

KOSA was introduced by anti-LGBTQ+ Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who said that one of the bill’s top priorities is to protect children from “the transgender in this culture.” Blackburn’s office told LGBTQ Nation that her comment had been “taken out of context” and wasn’t related to KOSA. Nevertheless, the anti-LGBTQ+ conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has also said it wishes to use the law to “guard” kids against the “harms of… transgender content.”

While the Senate voted on KOSA, opposition groups issued statements against its passage.

Joe Mullin, Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, “I think some of this is just based on hoping or believing that the enforcement of a speech law will be done by the good guys. And that’s we’ve just never seen that be the case. And that’s why it’s better to stick by our First Amendment values.”

Mandy Salley, Chief Operating Officer at Woodhull Freedom Foundation, said, “I’m really particularly concerned about the impact on youth in states that are already living under abortion bans or living in the 25 States that have bans on gender and care. I think you’re just gonna see that kind of censorship get much worse.” 

Dara Adkison, Executive Director of TransOhio, said, “I’ve literally had legislators tell me to my face that they would love to see our website taken off the Internet because they don’t want people to have the kinds of vital community resources that we provide.” 

Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said, “KOSA compounds nationwide attacks on young peoples’ right to learn and access information, on and offline. As state legislatures and school boards across the country impose book bans and classroom censorship laws, the last thing students and parents need is another act of government censorship deciding which educational resources are appropriate for their families. The House must block this dangerous bill before it’s too late.”

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